Ranji Trophy, Round 2, Day 1: Six centuries and 3 fifers

Even as Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin put India in a good position in the opening Test against West Indies, the selectors would have also closely followed the opening day of the second round of Ranji Trophy matches in which Suresh Raina, Sanju Samson, Venugopal Rao, Baba Aparajith, S Badrinath and Sunny Singh hit fine tons. Some of the bowlers also came up with impressive shows, with Vikramjeet Malik, Bhargav Bhatt and Sumit Narwal being the stand-out performers of the day, picking up a five-wicket haul each.

Group A matches:

The absence of key players like Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane hurt Mumbai initially before the experienced Wasim Jaffer, who had opted to bat at number three in this game, came up with an unbeaten 90 to help his side recover from the precarious position. Harbhajan Singh, who picked up a wicket in the first session, did not scalp any after that while Yuvraj Singh had one wicket to speak for his efforts. Brief Scores: Mumbai 207/5 (71). Wasim Jaffer 92*, Siddharth Kaul 2/40.

In the Delhi v Gujarat game in Surat, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir had to wait for their turns while Sumit Narwal turned out to be Delhi's star performer. His five-wicket haul which included the scalp of centurion Venugopal Rao late in the day, left things interestingly poised. Brief Scores: Gujarat 281/7 (89.5). Venugopal Rao 107, Manpreet Juneja 50, Sumit Narwal 5/56.

Karnataka, playing their first Ranji Trophy game this season, were not as effective with the ball as they would have preferred, unable to peg away at the Jharkhand batsmen who employed a watchful approach. Rameez Nemat hit a half-century and Saurabh Tiwary was approaching one while Sreenath Arvind and KP Appanna were amongst the wickets. The team's strike bowlers R Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun went wicketless. Brief Scores: Jharkhand 214/5 (87.1). Rameez Nemat 68, Sreenath Arvind 3/45.

In Nagpur, Vidharba had put Haryana in early trouble before Sunny Singh hit an unbeaten hundred and got good support from AA Barot to put their side in favourable position to post a good total. Brief Scores: Haryana 235/4 (90). Sunny Singh 101*, AA Barot 64, Sumit Ruikar 1/42.

Trouble-shooter S Badrinath found himself in a familiar situation yet again, needing to rescue his team out of trouble and he did a superb job along with Baba Aparajith to lay the platform for Tamil Nadu to reach a good total. Following early wickets, Badri and Baba scored fine hundreds to take the side closer to the 300 mark. Brief Scores: Tamil Nadu 294/3 (90). S Badrinath 126*, Baba Aparajith 118, Amarjeet Singh 1/38.

Despite a century by Vineet Saxena, Rajasthan were in a spot of bother, losing quick wickets in the last two sessions of the day. Shib Paul and Saurasish Lahiri picked up two wickets apiece. Brief Scores: Rajasthan 222/6 (58). Vineet Saxena 110, Saurasish Lahiri 2/24.

In a rain affected tie in Delhi, Saurashtra were in in a lot of trouble against Railways as Anureet Singh rocked the top-order with a three-wicket haul. While Aarpit Vasadva came up with a fighting knock, Saurashtra still had a lot of hard work to do. Brief Scores: Saurashtra 88/4 (46). Aarpit Vasavada 44*, Anureet Singh 3/24.

Group C Matches:

Assam, taking on Hyderabad in their home match in Guwahati, had their hopes rested on Sibsankar Roy, who hit an unbeaten half-century even as the hosts lost wickets regularly at the other end. Amol Shinde was the wrecker-in-chief, picking up a three-wicket haul. Brief Scores: Assam 181/5 (90). Sibsankar Roy 85*, Amol Shinde 3/49.

Nikhilesh Surendran, who hit the first half-century of the day, fell in the second session in the Kerala v Andhra match in Kannur before Sanju Samson continued the good work, hitting yet another century to put the hosts in a good position. Brief Scores: Kerala 236/4 (90). Sanju Samson 115, Nikhilesh Surendran 66, DP Vijaykumar 2/34.

In the Tripura v Himachal game in Agartala, the hosts came up with a listless display with the bat. Despite a half-century by Abhijit Dey, they kept losing wickets at regular intervals to be bowled out for a below par total. Vikramjeet Malik was the main wicket-taker, picking up a a fifer while Rishi Dhawan picked up four wickets. Brief Scores: Tripura 141 all-out (71.3). Abhijit Dey 66, Vikramjeet Malik 5/37. Himachal 26/1 (16).